Although Jitterbug! is set in 1931, the playwright encourages choreographers to "reach into the future" for moves that will blow the minds of everyone at the Savoy Ballroom where the climatic dance contest unfolds. With the crowd encroaching, driven into a frenzy by the unbelievable dancing by the final two couples, protagonists Billy Rhythm and Tharbis Jefferson are slashed by knives and razor blades by his old street gang the Jolly Fellows who want the other couple to win, the legendary George "Shorty" Snowden and Big Bea. Their clothes ripped to shreds and stained with blood, Billy and Tharbis reach deep into themselves for dance moves no one had ever seen before. Beginning with "show dancing," they breakaway and dance side-by-side in choreographed tap dancing across the floor like Fred and Ginger before morphing with the music from the Gershwin's swinging Chick Webb drum-driven Liza to Ellington's symphonic dreamlike masterpiece Harlem. It's in the Harlem sequence where choreographers are encouraged to explore "dances yet to come."
Although the Sprint commercial dance number "How It Feels" starring Erica Soto above may not set the right tone for the finale, if you wipe away the smiles, we can see how its "in your face" bravado towards those who want to kill you works well on the Savoy floor for our heroic dancers.
You can listen to the mash-up of the final music below using Liza (1929) and Harlem (1963) to create the transition from ugly reality to beautiful possibility.
Although the Sprint commercial dance number "How It Feels" starring Erica Soto above may not set the right tone for the finale, if you wipe away the smiles, we can see how its "in your face" bravado towards those who want to kill you works well on the Savoy floor for our heroic dancers.
You can listen to the mash-up of the final music below using Liza (1929) and Harlem (1963) to create the transition from ugly reality to beautiful possibility.
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